Micah Richards claimed after the match that City had not worked on Mancini's 3-5-2 system, and that the players were not used to the formation. Despite Richards' criticism, Mancini has defended his player.

He continued: "I don't want to speak about Micah because I don't think he said this. He answered questions. It's not important. I understand you should write about this, but for me it's not important what Micah said after the game.

"With this system, every time we change the result. Maybe Micah doesn't know this because it is the first game for him after he was out for two months. Probably he has worked less than the other players but maybe the next time when we play this system, he will understand it better."

The Manchester City boss remains confident that his side are able to get results by playing just three at the back, and insists that this is not just something which he started experimenting with this season.

He added: "The players know the system. When you are on the bench and 2-1 away, the manager should do something from the bench. We wanted to play more offensively and we conceded a third because of a mistake.

"I repeat, this system we played a minimum of 15 times last year. It is not a new system."